Jacob Stroyer, 1849-1908 Sketches of My Life in the South. Part ISalem: Salem Press, 1879.

Summary

Jacob Stroyer was born a slave on the Singleton plantation near Columbia, South
Carolina in 1849, and lived there until he was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in
1864. As a child, Stroyer helped care for the plantation's horses and mules, which were
sold soon after his master's death. He then worked briefly in a carpenter's shop and as a
field hand. During the Civil War, he was sent to Sullivan's Island and Fort Sumter in
Charleston, South Carolina, where he waited on Confederate officers. While there,
Stroyer learned to read. Following his release from slavery, Jacob Stroyer settled in
Salem, Massachusetts, and became minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
there.

Stroyer wrote his narrative, Sketches of My Life in the South (1879), in order
to generate enough income to further his education. The first section of the narrative
covers his fifteen years in slavery. It provides information about his family and describes
the physical abuse he endured at the hands of the Singleton plantation's overseer. Stroyer
also discusses the emotional strain that the slave trade put on his and other slave families.
The rest of the narrative is a series of brief anecdotes about slave life, culture, beliefs, and
the interactions between masters and slaves.